The more products that a company produces the more its profits increase. But with increased production comes an equal increase in customer service issues. From product complaints to exchanges and returns, no company can afford to keep selling a high level of products without addressing customer concerns and expect for customer satisfaction to happen on its own. Instead, large and growing companies have to find a timely, effective way to process and resolve customer complaints. While some companies attempt to address customer feedback though a phone or email system, the amount of feedback soon proves too heavy to be handled through email correspondence and over the telephone. Therefore, instead of hiring hundreds of customer care representatives, most companies choose to implement the processing solutions available through task tracking software.
In the software production business, task tracking and bug tracking are often referred to synonymously. But task tracking differs from bug tracking in that it is used to address much more than software bugs. In many cases, task tracking begins when a customer service representative receives a customer complaint through email or by telephone. The representative then determines whether or not the problem being reported by the customer results from a misuse of the product or a problem in the product’s design. In either case, the details of the report are incorporated into a “ticket”-a file that records who is reporting the problem, when it is being reported and the nature of the problem-that can then be viewed by members of a product development team. When the reported problem results from a product defect, product designers can focus of bettering the product and presenting its new and improved version through subsequent production runs. However, even a report that results from the misuse of a product can prove valuable for brainstorming new products.
In addition to proving beneficial for product enhancement and creation, task tracking software also allows project managers to see what each member of a product development team is working on at any given time. By producing a customized report through the tracking system, managers can confer with team members on how a project is progressing and shift workloads if one team member is overburdened with complex tasks. In addition, the up to date progress reports offered by a tracking system allow customer service representative to apprise consumers or business partners of where a product’s problem resolution stands in real time.
Task tracking systems are a must for large companies that offer a high volume of diverse products. But they are also useful for small or growing companies that want to add sanity to their customer reporting and issue resolution process. Previously, issue tracking systems had to be maintained in house, which brought the expense of purchasing a database to store tickets and database maintenance. But today, companies can harness the power of task tracking software at a minimal start up cost by opting for hosted issue tracking through an online provider.